The Department of Justice has cut several paragraphs of language from its website discussing different forms of child sex trafficking, including both international and domestic child prostitution.
The changes made to the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section page under the administration of President Joe Biden remove language added in May 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, which emphasized the transnational and digital nature of child sex trafficking in the 21st century.
First revealed by journalist Natalie Winters, the changes transpired in May of this year “amidst scrutiny of President Joe Biden’s continued incitement of mass migration via America’s porous southern border – a prime avenue for child sex trafficking.”
In 2020, the DOJ page included information concerning how children can be groomed, explaining, “After cultivating a relationship with the child and engendering a false sense of trust, the trafficker will begin engaging the child in prostitution, and use physical, emotional, and psychological abuse to keep the child trapped in a life of prostitution.”
This warning has now been removed from the page.
Additionally, the previous administration included lengthy sections detailing the transnational child sex trafficking rings.
“One form of sex trafficking involves the cross border transportation of children,” the page formerly read. “This form of sex trafficking is a problem in the United States, and recovered victims originate from all over the world.”
“Once in the United States, a child may be trafficked to any or multiple states within the country. These victims are often trafficked far from home, and thrown into unfamiliar locations and culture,” the former page continued. “It is not uncommon for a foreign victim to be coerced by a trafficker under false pretenses.”
Likewise, the 2020 version of the page emphasized, “The United States not only faces a problem of foreign victims trafficked into the country, but there is also a homegrown problem of American children being recruited and exploited for commercial sex.”
Furthermore, it explained, “Technological advances, in particular the internet, have facilitated the commercial sexual exploitation of children by providing a convenient worldwide marketing channel. … The Internet and web-enable cell phones also allow pimps and traffickers to reach a larger clientele base than in the past, which may expose victims to greater risks and dangers.”
The new page lacks all mention of international or domestic sex trafficking of minors.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) responded to the news, “What interesting timing. If you think trafficking is a ‘conspiracy theory,’ there is something wrong with you.”
“It is extremely disturbing that this has been removed and that left leaning outlets are trying to marginalize this issue,” she added, referencing the numerous mainstream media corporations that denounced the recent anti-child trafficking movie Sounds of Freedom.
Indeed, a review of the film by Miles Klee for Rolling Stone seemed to suggest it was focused on the wrong social issue.
“There is visible suffering all around us in America,” Klee bemoaned. “There are poor and unhoused, and people brutalized or killed by police. There are mass shootings, lack of healthcare, climate disasters. And yet, over and over, the far right turns to these sordid fantasies about godless monsters hurting children.”
The Dallas Express reached out to the Justice Department for comment regarding the changes to its site but did not receive a response prior to publication.
